MINSK, 5 January (BelTA) – Employees of the Consulate General of Poland in Brest have assisted a Polish citizen, a suspect in a fatal car accident, to try to flee the country, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Glaz told BelTA.
"Today, the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of Poland in Belarus has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The case we are dealing with is absolutely egregious," Anatoly Glaz said.
He explained that a Polish citizen was involved in an accident that killed two Belarusian girls. He became a suspect in the fatal accident. Earlier, the Brest Oblast office of the Investigative Committee informed the public of this incident and the criminal case that was opened into it.
"It was quite natural that the Polish citizen was asked not to leave the Republic of Belarus. However, on 3 January, in an attempt to escape responsibility, the Polish citizen tried to leave our country and hide on the territory of Poland but was detained by border guards. We have clearly established that the escape attempt was organized by employees of the Consulate General of Poland in Brest," Anatoly Glaz said. "Moreover, they did it consciously, understanding both the validity of the travel restrictions for the suspect and the fact that two people died as a result of the accident.”
In fact, the employees of the Polish consulate deliberately encouraged their fellow citizen to violate the Belarusian legislation, which would put him up for the subsequent international warrant in connection with the fatal accident, Anatoly Glaz said. "Such 'good advice' and 'good services' did a lot of harm to the Polish citizen and he was taken into custody," he stressed.
Anatoly Glaz noted that such actions of the employees of the Consulate General of Poland directly violate the provisions of the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations and violate the laws of Belarus, just as they would violate the laws of any other country. "They are incomprehensible for a consul or a diplomat. Diplomats are supposed to be the paragon of legality and are vested with the right, for example, to visit closed or penitentiary institutions. This official has deliberately violated the law. Things are aggravated by the fact that people died in the car accident ," Anatoly Glaz added.
The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the hope that it was an isolated incident that does not reflect on the work of the Polish Foreign Ministry as a whole. "At the same time, we do not see an opportunity for the consular officer to continue his work in Belarus. We will inform our foreign partners about the incident. We hope that our Polish colleagues will draw the appropriate conclusions," the diplomat added.
